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For several years the Forest City Daily Courier's Web site was what could best be described as sucky, and for the last several months they charged for it. Recently, however, it has blossomed into a very useful, highly readable resource, at no charge. Go to its "E-Edition" page, click the "Full Page" icon, and you can read the entire paper, full screen. And you don't get ink stains on your fingers!
If there are are members of the Society who would prefer getting each issue of the Chimes in a PDF file instead of a physical mailed copy, please let us know.
We urge our Society members to keep your membership up to date. How can you find out what your annual expiration date is? Go to the Society page and click the Membership tab.
We're trying to put on this Web site all the yearbooks ever published at Cliffside High School, but we've been unable to locate quite a few. If you have a copy for any year prior to 1937, please lend it/them to us for scanning and return. Send us an email and tell us what you have. We'll advise you how and where to send it.
Have you browsed through the 1930 Census yet? When and if you do, if you find misspelled names or incorrect facts, be sure to tell us.
We've had quite a few responses to our "Where Are You Now?" survey.
If you haven't completed the survey, please do. Go to the Society page and click on the Survey tab. Complete it, print it, and follow the mailing instructions. Or save it and attach it to an email to us.
Avondale Map & Aerial Photo
In 1975, Avondale historian Irene Roach Delpino, drawing on the memories of fellow residents, drew a very detailed map of her town as it was around the year 1950.
Also, there's an aerial photo of the Haynes Mill, and many of the homes in that village.
They're in The County section (under History), on the Places and Photos pages.
William T. Ingram, Jr.
The Ingram families were an important part of Cliffside’s proud heritage. Gene Ingram, son of the man we all knew as “Bill,” reflects upon his father's character and his life as a soldier and a father.
The Old Dry Cleaners
It was built in the 1910s as a silent movie theater. In 1926 it was converted to a dry cleaning plant that remained in operation for about 50 years.
Christmas Parade 1967
Were you in Cliffside that year? You might even have been IN the parade. It started somewhere up Shelby Highway, came across the creek bridge, went up the hill and through town, then up N. Main, probably to the school. Those were the days. Enjoy a couple dozen photos of that semi-memorable event, provided by Sherry Harris Phelps.
The Henrietta Mill
Some background and photos of the mill at Henrietta, which R.R. Haynes built in the late 1890s, before he built the town and mill of Cliffside.
Family Stories
The oldest graves in Cliffside Cemetery hold four descendents of one Robert Haney, a Revolutionary War veteran and, after 1783, resident of the High Shoals area. It is thought that Haney or his children once owned the land on which Cliffside was later founded.
Who lived where in Cliffside? If you're interested in 1964, we've found an old county cross-reference directory that lists 667 individuals on the streets and roads in and around Cliffside.
Something new and slightly different! A Media Center where you'll find links to all the video and audio material on this site. The new sights and sounds include: extended audio interviews with Myrtle Mashburn and Al Lancaster; and videos of the closing of the mill and of workers drawing the pond back in 2000.
There's a new button in the navigation panel called, what else, "Media." You'll find it on every page that displays the panel, and on every page that displays a bottom menu group.
There's more to come in the next few months. If you have DVD or CD material that relates to Cliffside, let us take a look. We might add it to Remember Cliffside.
Cliffside Sketches
The latest: stories of a true pioneer of Cliffside, James Edward Atkinson (1857-1954), the author's grandfather.
Dr. Rush Shull
A son-in-law of R.R. Haynes, he was one of Cliffside’s physicians from 1912 until 1920 when he moved his practice to Charlotte. We have a four-tab page containing his profile; an account of an amazing adventure in 1941, where he barely escaped death; and an appreciation of his first son, Joseph Rush Shull, Jr.
Barnett v. Cliffside Mills
In 1914 a young man sued the Company for negligence. He was injured when he whacked a dynamite cap he said he found at a Company worksite. But did he really find it where he said? Read the story and all the major testimony. It's not just legalese. You'll learn where things were and who was doing what in Cliffside a hundred years ago.
Daisy Wilson Reminisces
Daisy, now in her 90's, tells about her life in a small town—ours. Dr. Shull delivered her in 1916. Few of us can claim that!
Miss Pamelia Alice Pruette
A nice tribute (written in 1992) from her sister Ferne to this 97-year-old native of Cliffside. She worked many years in the mill office and post office. Learn how her family happened to come to our town.
Rock Springs Campground
We read in Joe Beason's journal that, back in the 1880's and 90's, he attended camp meetings at the Rock Springs Campground. Where was this place? we wondered. Now we've found out, and it was not far from the site on which Cliffside would be built.
World War II
We've acquired 78 more photos of Cliffside service men collected at the library in the early days of the war.
Along with most of the photos are the names of their parents and each boy's last known service address.
These were kept in notebooks, a primitive database of sorts where anyone wanting to write a serviceman could find his address. All these "records" were almost lost, as you'll read in the story, but, at the last moment, were saved from the landfill.
They're in Gallery 3 of the newly-refurbished mini-site "Cliffside in WWII," located in the History section.
That's Fred Crow, son of Mr. and Mrs. L. E. “Pet” Crow, standing at attention at Camp Polk, La.
Documents: Old Letter
In the summer of 1901 R. R. Haynes wrote a friend about the progress being made in building the Cliffside Mill. Surprisingly, they had not even started erecting the mill walls. He seemed pessimistic, or at least uncertain, about the state of things, and the direction the company was taking.
Grover & Ina Fortune Haynes
We learn a great deal about them in this double profile by their son, Grover, Jr. They were married in 1910, after each finished college. At the end of the decade Grover had finished dental school (in Atlanta) and was practicing dentistry in Cliffside. Ina, shown here at age 27, was an influential person in her own right, as a writer and once serving as Cliffside's postmistress. Read their compelling stories and enjoy the photographs.
Transcripts
There was a lot of “talking” at the event described below, and we've transcribed most of it. If you missed the Gathering, or even if you didn't, read the remarks about Mr. Lipscomb and Mr. Beatty by their relatives and friends. And see many of the photos featured in the talks. Go to the Society page and click the Features tab.
Roots of Earl & Snuffy
Bob Carlin's article "The Roots of Earl and Snuffy: Searching For The Banjo Along The North/South Carolina Border" follows the trail of the first players to use the three-finger style of banjo playing, whose greatest practitioner is Earl Scruggs. And the trail leads through Cliffside!
Big Bank Robbery of '69
The audacious robbers took over $35,000, then shot up the bank's windows as they made their escape. Even our Baptist minister—with a borrowed pistol—was in on the hunt. As far as we know, the robbers are still at large. If you know their whereabouts, call the sheriff.
Reunion! The Class of '59
This past Spring the last class to graduate from Cliffside High held their 50th anniversary celebration at the old school. Lots of smiles, hugs and tears.
Profile: Hollis Owens, Sr.
He was a man for all seasons at Cliffside Mills. In his 50 plus years of service he held high positions at the mill, the railroad and the bank. And in a 1978 interview he remembers his stint in the Army Air Corp in France during World War I.
The County – Then and Now
In July The Daily Courier published a massive six-part series on the past, present and future of Rutherford County's economy. It traces the cycle of farm to factory, then from idle smokestacks back to the farm again. You'll find these 14 articles informative and helpful, especially if you own a tract of land or are looking for help to start a new career.
Old Letterheads
As we were looking through the mill's old correspondence, we were struck by the ornate letterheads companies used in those days, a time when their stationery was their only feasible means of advertising.
Living History
From age 16, she was a familiar face at the Haynes Bank and later at the Cliffside and Henrietta branches of First Citizens, where she worked for much of her career. Jane, daughter of John and Maude McCurry Robinson, and wife of Dwight Hamrick, tells of her life in Cliffside.
Her family moved to Cliffside around 1920. At 13, she learned to spin in the mill, a job she had for 50 years. Listen to Don Bailey's interview with Leavy Johnson Scruggs, who, at age 97, has lived a lot of Cliffside's history.
Photo of the Month — February
Who is this man, and where is he? He might have replaced your fan belt at that little garage in Fairview.
Learn what happened to your old friends since they left Cliffside. Click on a photo.
Landmarks: Jenkins Grocery
Not a filling station, as such, although you could buy gas and oil. Not a supermarket, although you could shop for essentials. It was the convenience store of its day, run by a man named Voyd Jenkins. The building still stands, although it has been remodeled and repurposed.
Within a few hours of our putting out an All Points Bulletin for a '49 yearbook, Rachel Bridges Haynes donated her copy to the Society. Here's a PDF of the publication.
Cliffside Obituaries
It's a collection of 116 death notices from over three decades, from a scrapbook created by Jessie Campbell Carpenter (1891-1984) and contributed by her granddaughter, Linda Webster Poteat.
“I am so happy to review the Cliffside memories. My teachers also included Miss Dickerson; Mr Huff [Huss], math teacher; Mr. Beatty, principal. I listened to the presidents speech on the radio in class the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor...”
— Ruby Ward Cervino
Poems of Cliffside
“Listen, I’ve got to tell you—
Cannot keep it longer or be still—
Walked down the street one day last week
And got a job in the Cliffside Mill.”
That's just a taste of the poetic offerings you'll find in this new section.
Recent additions: new poems by Billy Ingram and Era Robinson.
From The Rutherford County Sun, dozens of articles and columns from the late 1920s, describing events both tragic and humorous; changes to the town; advertising by Cliffside stores and businesses; and community, school and church news.
Latest addition: In 1919 came news of progress on the new mill in Avondale, Cliffside's support of the recent war, the company's benevolence during the great flu epidemic in the past few months.
Did you ever wonder how it all started? In our Documents section we've added the Articles of Incorporation for Cliffside Mills, dated February 4, 1901. It's the agreement between R. R. Haynes and his other partners to start a business that would prosper for over 100 years.
Remember those old two, three and four digit phone numbers? Find the number of everyone in town in the Rutherford County Phone Directory for 1944.
Browse through these and many other old Cliffside papers. This is history, folks.
Recent addition: Cliffside Historical Society Newsletter Volume I.
In The News
We've found a delightful description, written in 1903, of the "Cliffside style" of marrying, which usually amounted to little more than the couple running down to South Carolina (without telling her folks), and getting back in time to work their next shift in the mill. And, from 1911, a Lattimore contributor to The Sun, who called himself "Corn Cracker," tells of his trip to the impressive town of Cliffside. Both articles are found in In The News, Miscellaneous.
Visit The Archives
The snippets on this page appear for only a few months and then, alas, in order to make room for new features, they vanish into thin air.
Or do they?
Actually they don't vanish at all, but take up residence on one of our archives pages. Browse through them occasionally. You may find an item you missed when it was first published.
Note: None of the pages on this site is ever archived, all remain wherever they were first stored, in History, Memories, etc. Only these front-page teasers are moved to the archive section.
Find the house where you lived and the streets where you walked and played, on this map drawn in 1942.
Were you aware?
There is a list of all four dozen Photos of the Month we've selected since Remember Cliffside began in 2002. On the Galleries home page you can go through the list and revisit all those outstanding photos.
Why this web site?
In the southeastern corner of Rutherford County, North Carolina, along the Second Broad River, is the village of Cliffside. Or more accurately, what's left of the village of Cliffside. This site is dedicated to preserving the memories and lore of the little mill town we once knew.
Copyright © 2010 The Cliffside Historical Society
